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Featuring Demian Dressler, DVM and Sue Ettinger, DVM, Dip. ACVIM (Oncology), authors of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide
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Dog Cancer Supplements

Important Issues in Chemotherapy

The problem with chemotherapy, at least traditional drugs, is that it does not always target just the cancer cells.  What I mean by that is the chemo drug may not care if it shuts down a dividing body cell or a dividing cancer cell. Chemotherapy drugs tend, with some exceptions, to go after cells that…

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Chemo side effects: What should I do?

Chemotherapy does have side effects that need to be considered.  About 5% of these will require your pet to be hospitalized, on the average, and there is a 1% chance of fatal reactions overall with chemotherapy. Although I have not seen any published data, unpublished estimates on overall risks of any side effect are roughly…

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The Number One Way to Cure Canine Cancer

These days, there is so much information out there about cancer in dogs.  Some is good, and some is not that hot.   If you dig, you will find enough to make your head spin. You will get the basics from your vet or oncologist. These are what I call The Big Three, and consist of…

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Where Do I Begin?

“I am overwhelmed with all the information I am reading to help my dog with cancer.” Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? Most of the readers of this blog are searching for information. Once a true malignancy has developed, the realities can feel utterly unacceptable. This leads to information gathering.  Whenever we are…

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Why Test For Heartworm But Not Cancer?

I was recently thinking about a little problem us veterinary professionals are faced with. We seem to have forgotten about relative risks. A relative risk is simply the risk of something in comparison to something else.  Take the risk of cancer versus the risk of heartworm in a dog on heartworm preventative. Now, I am…

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Do Numbers Matter?

A lover of a dog with cancer needs to come up with an plan that makes sense. The first step in any plan is arming oneself with answers, or data that relates to the situation. There are two basic areas that we need to focus on. The first is what can we do to maintain…

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What Is The Best Supplement for Dog Cancer?

We are faced with some hard choices when in a war against dog cancer.  The truth is, as dog lovers,  often we feel pretty undergunned and overwhelmed, with choices that range from not-so-great to downright awful. One of the difficulties many have is the choice among the supplements discussed in this blog or in The…

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Can I give supplements with Chemotherapy?

In the world of dog cancer, we find ourselves in a war where we can be under-gunned. I must confess that when I look at this statement, I find myself wondering whether it is healthy. To think about dealing with malignancies as a war?  Perhaps this analogy is too violent, too antagonistic, too contrary. The…

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Everything is overwhelming…

Many dog lovers, especially those of you who just received the news that your dog has cancer, feel very overwhelmed.  This is very common and completely natural. So many questions arise.  How did this happen?  Where did the cancer come from? Why wasn’t this picked up before?  Is it the food? Vaccines? Chemicals? What do…

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Is it for me or for my dog?

Decision making when loving a dog with a cancer diagnosis can be tough. Many times we will experience some degree of confusion in decision making.  There are many options that are presented.  Should I allow chemotherapy? Amputation?  Is radiation really worth it? I think that a lot of the difficulty may not actually relate to…

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Vitamin D and Dog Cancer

Dog lovers will do anything they can to help their dog with a cancer.  And you should! This can be one of the hardest times anyone will face. Many times the effort helps, and other times it may not. This, of course, is not due to any ill intention on the part of the dog’s…

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New Antioxidant Info For Managing Dog Cancer

Got some new stuff for everyone into vitamins and antioxidants in cancer treatment for their loved dogs. Recall we are talking about cancer treatment, not cancer prevention. These are two different categories gang, with different considerations. You may recall also that the big deal is that there has been concern with free radical scavenging, which…

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What I Do in my Veterinary Hospital

Some have wondered what does this guy do, this Dr Dressler? Why does he do this blog anyway? Well, there is a shorter version of the long truth. Since this is a blog post, and I’m told mine are too long anyway, I’ll give you the short version. I spend many hours working as a…

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The Toxicity of Potent Dog Chemo Drug Doxorubicin

Is your dog on doxorubicin? Here’s what you need to know about this potent, common chemotherapy agent.

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My Dog Has Osteosarcoma: Should I Allow Amputation?

Is amputation a good idea for dogs with osteosarcoma? Dr. Dressler looks at this decision from two perspectives. In this article: life expectancy.

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But I want CLA for my dog with cancer!

Dear friends and fellow dog lovers, Here is the follow up on the CLA post… Just for the record, I don’t care for the stuff.  The forms of CLA are all mixed together usually.  At some point they will separate the forms of CLA in the mixture,  and then we can re-assess. At this time…

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Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Dog Cancer

I received a question about the use of safflower oil for a type of lyphosarcoma (lymphoma) in dogs.  The group of active ingredients in safflower oil is called the Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA). There are other things in safflower oil too that have effects, but this is a biggy. So should we be giving this…

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Fantastic fungus and dog cancer..medicinal mushrooms!?

Yes, you read that right.  Certain kinds of mushrooms have immune boosting and anti-cancer effects. Some examples of these mushrooms include Shitake (yes, the same one we eat in Chinese restaurants), Maitake, Reishi, Cordyceps, Coriolus, Agaricus and Cordyceps. The good folks over at Aloha Medicinals have known about this forever.  I spoke with Dr. John…

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EGCG and dog cancer: beyond chemo, radiation and surgery

So you feel that there is more than chemotherapy, radiation and surgery for dogs with cancer? So do I, and we are correct! Here’s just one example: EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate). This is a naturally occurring substance found in green tea.   EGCG has several anticancer effects that are very real.  This substance is in trials at…

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Help overcome dog food dangers: which oils for cancer??

Rochelle Lesser, who created and manages a great site for Golden Retrievers (and dogs in general), asked about krill oil on a recent post.  Here’s the skinny on why I like its cancer-fighting benefits (krill are those tiny shrimp that whales eat). First,  krill oil helps offset the omega 6 fatty acid excess I wrote about…

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Dog food and cancer: help fight this problem!

In the last post I wrote about one of the issues in most commercial dog foods contributing to dog cancer: omega 6 fatty acid excess. This is a group of fats that are found in large quantities in corn products, vegetable oils, and meat products like tallow and lard, to name a few sources. Dogs…

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